In terms of political makeup, Hillsborough County consists of a blue dot (Tampa) adrift in a sea of red (Plant City, Temple Terrace, unincorporated rural and exurban areas). Yet from the county’s outskirts, where tons of strawberries need picking each year, to the kitchens in the urban core’s bustling restaurants, undocumented workers are everywhere.
Some fled poverty and strife to get here, others were brought by their parents. All face the constant threat of deportation. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order threatens to revoke federal dollars from any city that doesn’t instruct law enforcement to turn undocumented immigrants over to federal immigration authorities, which heightens the immigration debate nationally and locally.
Despite so many immigrants working on both sides of the bay — and a groundswell of support for their defense — elected officials have yet to formally adopt policies that would protect non-violent immigrants from deportation. And they probably won’t.
The mayors of St. Petersburg and Tampa support defying the president’s order in spirit, but the closest any local government has come to adopting a concrete policy is the citizen-led Hillsborough County Diversity Advisory Council’s recommendation that the Hillsborough County Commission explore adopting sanctuary status. But that probably won’t lead anywhere.
At the Diversity Advisory Council Meeting earlier this month, more public commenters were sympathetic with the plight of immigrants than not: A total of 36 people said they supported making Hillsborough a sanctuary county, whereas eight were against and two were neutral, councilmember Gamal Gasser noted.
Those who spoke in favor offered passionate, often personal pleas to the council.
“I’m here as a Hillsborough County resident who yearns to see her community reject hatred and violence by becoming a sanctuary city,” said graduate student Jamie Sykes, the great-grandchild of Lebanese refugees who fled religious persecution. “I’m here as a human being who implores [the Diversity Advisory Council] to choose peace, love and acceptance over fear, violence and hatred.”
The council also heard from those against making Hillsborough County a sanctuary county, mostly out of concerns that it wouldn’t be fair to immigrants who followed legal (however pricey) routes to come to the U.S.
“It would be unfair and morally wrong to let people jump ahead in the line,” said Robert Emerson, “when [some people have] been waiting and doing what we’ve asked them to do.”
Although that council advised the BOCC to look into possible sanctuary status, it doesn’t appear likely that commissioners on the majority-Republican board will listen. The Tampa Bay Times noted that Hillsborough County Commission Chair Stacy White, who hails from Hillsborough County’s reddest reaches, is “deeply opposed” to sanctuary status.
“I am not in support of Hillsborough County being anything less than a county that respects and follows the rule of law,” White wrote in a memo to his colleagues, according to the Times.
At the city level, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman have thrown symbolic support behind protecting undocumented immigrants, but since most arrestees are taken to county facilities, there’s nothing they can do. Buckhorn told Saintpetersblog.com the city has never engaged in helping to deport undocumented immigrants and that it is “not something that we believe in and not something that I support.”
Kriseman, meanwhile, published an essay online on Feb. 3 in which he vowed to not spend any city resources to enforce anti-immigrant laws, and will not direct city police to question people over their immigration status. The post caused some confusion over what the mayor was declaring and spurred anger among conservatives, who accused Kriseman of trying to have it both ways in voicing support for sanctuaries without pushing for an official declaration that would strip the city of federal grant dollars.
But city officials insist the post was more a show of solidarity with sanctuary cities and counties across the country that are officially designated as such.
This article appears in Feb 2-9, 2017.